‘Ill-lodged in a woman’s breast’: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the Woman’s Heart
‘Ill-lodged in a woman’s breast’: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the Woman’s Heart
Gender was central to accounts of heart disease given that women's hearts were generally supposed to be weaker and more emotionally vulnerable than those of men. This chapter examines the gendered discourse of the heart and how it impinged upon the work of female poets, and on their pathologized bodies. It argues that, in contrast to Angela Leighton's influential account of how women poets wrote ‘against’ the heart, female poets could find significant agency and value in heart-centred discourse. After briefly discussing works by Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, and Adelaide Procter in this light, the chapter turns to Barrett Browning, focusing particularly on the vexed use of heart imagery in Aurora Leigh.
Keywords: gender, body, female poets, Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
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